Recipes

Since January of 2012, my husband and I have been eating primarily a plant-based diet. In addition to being Vegan, our nightly dinners are also gluten-free, which presents a challenge at times.

We have slowly introduced our children to a plant-based, whole foods diet, and while my teen may never give up his Kraft macaroni and cheese, we have found that our children’s palates have expanded drastically in a short amount of time (baba ganoush is now a family favorite!)

I am not a cook, but I love cookbooks, and so I often take a recipe and adapt it to our family’s tastes. The recipes I share on this blog have passed the ‘kid’ test, and I hope that your family enjoys them as well.

Hi Julie!
For a gluten-free diet, it really depends on what kinds of foods you like to eat. You also have to be wary of going totally to meat & dairy for solace (like I did at first).

Breakfast is pretty easy. We have fruit, maybe some raw nut butter (peanut or almond–without sugar or oil added) on gf crackers or some steel cut oats with mashed banana or raisins or crushed walnuts & pure maple syrup on top. If you’re still eating dairy, yogurt with fresh fruit is good or gf cereal.

I tend to gravitate towards Asian foods, since they use a lot of rice or rice noodles & tons of veggies.

I also do a lot of Hispanic-type of cooking–if you enjoy taco-like stuff–you can use corn tortillas instead of wheat, though those are best when warmed in a pan with a little oil. I feel you can’t go wrong with black beans, tomatoes, onions, cilantro & a squeeze of lime. Cook the onions until translucent, then add chopped tomatoes until a little soft (you can add peppers & jalapeños if you like) then add the black beans.

Italian is also pretty easy if you find a good gluten-free noodle. I’ve found the best ones to be made of corn or quinoa–or with a mix of rice. The ones that are totally rice aren’t as tasty & tend to clump together badly.

If you email me & let me know what kind of things you like, I would be happy to help out & pass some more recipes along. I also have a killer pumpkin cheesecake, which is NOT vegan, but totally yummy and gluten-free.